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FERC and Clean Water Act Compliance

Chelan River

Overview

Lake Chelan Dam is a small hydroelectric project that regulates water flows between Lake Chelan and the Chelan River. Chelan PUD has operated the project since 1955 and is licensed to produce power by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. As part of its most recent licensing effort and Clean Water Act Section 401 certification, Chelan PUD agreed to implement the Chelan River Biological Evaluation and Implementation Plan (CRBEIP). The goals of the CRBEIP are to improve habitat conditions and determine the river’s potential for supporting salmon spawning and survival. To this end, it outlined the following path:

  1. Creating habitat 
  2. Monitoring and evaluation
  3. Adaptive management
  4. Compliance reporting

To support the third step, adaptive management, Chelan PUD collected fisheries and water quality data between 2009 and 2019. Also, in 2019 it began the process of providing a final compliance report that evaluated the 10 years of data.

Our Role

Four Peaks provides technical and regulatory support to Chelan PUD. Our initial work involved evaluating reasonable and feasible options for temperature improvements. Also, we synthesized biological and water quality monitoring and evaluation studies and provided technical support for stakeholder and regulatory meetings. To support Chelan PUD’s water quality certification and FERC licensing, we considered modeled and observed habitat data, which we used to interpret patterns of fish habitat use. Next, we derived conclusions about the operational impacts of flow regulation and water temperatures on fish populations. We summarized the evaluation results in a comprehensive Biological Objectives Status Report (BOSR) that was reviewed and approved by multiple state, federal, and tribal stakeholders. The approval of the BOSR allowed Chelan PUD to comply with their license and 401 water quality certification requirements.

The information contained in the BOSR was a foundational component of Chelan PUD’s request for a Use Attainability Analysis. In 2021, the Washington Department of Ecology proposed the requested standard designation change (Ecology 2021), marking the first time it had ever used the Use Attainability Analysis tool. Four Peaks continues to provide support for Chelan PUD by working with federal and state regulators with the associated water quality compliance review.


Ecology (Washington State Department of Ecology). 2021. “After restoration success, Ecology proposes site-specific rulemaking for Chelan River.” News (blog), March 25, 2021, https://ecology.wa.gov/About-us/Get-to-know-us/News/2021/March-25-Chelan-River-Rulemaking

At A Glance

Client Type
Utility

Location
Washington

Project Timeline
2018 to Present

Service Area(s)
, ,

Project Manager: Pradeep Mugunthan, PhD, PE

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